Alberta actress MacKenzie Porter filling big shoes on Hell on Wheels

It’s a daunting prospect for any performer to wait for those first reviews.

But Medicine Hat native MacKenzie Porter may have been more jittery than most as she waited for the first wave of response to the Season 4 opener of AMC’s epic railroad and nation-building western Hell on Wheels. These days, it tends to come from online commentators and tweeters, fans that can be decidedly rigid and possessive of their favourite shows and characters.

As Naomi Hatch, a Mormon teen impregnated by anti-hero Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount), Porter had taken on a major and somewhat controversial role on the Alberta-shot show that has had three seasons to establish itself with devoted fans. Not only that, she was taking over from another actress who created the role a season earlier. Not only that, but that actress, Calgary native Siobhan Williams, is her friend and a frequent rival for roles.

“I was nervous about it,” admits Porter, in a phone interview earlier this week from Nashville. “But after the first episode aired last week, I had so many fans tweet me (saying) ‘We’re so glad you are on the show.’ There was no comparison between the two of us. It was just welcoming. It was so relieving and so nice.”

It was due to scheduling problems that Williams had to bow out of Season 4. She can currently be seen in the ABC drama Black Box. Because the two are friends in Vancouver, Porter had seen the show and was familiar with the role but was nevertheless nervous to audition when it became clear producers would have to recast. It gave Hell on Wheels what showrunner and TV veteran John Wirth quaintly calls a “Two Darrins” situation, referring to when Dick York was famously replaced by Dick Sargent in the role of Darrin Stephens on the 1960s sitcom Bewitched.

The fact that such a dated reference is still used — when asked, Porter admits she had no clue what it meant — indicates how rare a phenomenon it is on TV.

But the 24-year-old actress says she learned early on in the shooting of Season 4 that she had to make the character her own.

“I had seen her stuff and obviously when I auditioned for it that came into play,” Porter says. “I thought maybe they would try and match. But as soon as I got the part, I talked to our showrunner and Anson and the writers and they wanted me to to go with my first instincts and what I brought to the character. I think, naturally, Siobhan and I have similar mannerisms so we bring that together. But I definitely wanted to make her my own and feel comfortable going to work everyday knowing that this is my character now.”

As a character, Naomi Hatch brought Porter a number of firsts as an actress. It was not only her first western, but her first role in any sort of period piece. It was also the first time she played a mother and the first time since her acting debut back in 2007 on the Alberta-shot children’s series Dinosapians that she had a regular role in a TV series.

While viewers only caught glimpses of Naomi’s character in Season 3, the writers certainly fleshed her out this season. Last year, Bohannon was taken from his beloved railroad to a Mormon encampment thanks to the deceptions of his enemy, The Swede (Christopher Heyerdahl), who is posing as a God-touched church leader at the heavily armed fort. To save his neck, Bohannon marries Naomi when he realizes she is carrying his child. As Season 4 opens, he is plotting an escape but his relationship with new wife is surprisingly tender. While she has lived a largely sheltered life, Naomi proves to be perceptive and wise-beyond-her-years, both naive and strong.

“I think she sees a lot of really good things in him,” Porter says. “In rehearsals, it was made clear to me that the love wasn’t natural but they were working on it and it was growing. I think being stuck with anybody in any relationship, you start to love certain things about them, especially if you have a child together. I think that’s the big turning point for Naomi, whether the love is natural or if she brings it there for the child. I think it gets more intense throughout the season.”

Porter says she watched numerous documentaries and read books about Mormonism and the time period to prepare for her role. While some modern-day Mormons frowned on last year’s depiction of the 1860s faithful as nasty and violent, it was all based on historical accounts of the anti-government Mormon militias of the day. Researching roles is Porter’s favourite part of the job. But it did add even more work to what was already a very hectic year for the actress.

Along with her duties on Hell on Wheels, she also released her debut self-titled country album earlier this summer, which she recorded on weekends during the shoot. The album immediately rose up the charts and led to opening gigs for Blake Shelton and The Rascal Flatts. On the day of this interview, Porter was in Nashville for songwriting sessions. It all gave her something to talk about with Hell on Wheels co-star Common, who plays Elam in the series but also has a successful career as a hip-hop artist.

“We really were only on set a few days together, we just had opposite schedules,” says Porter with a laugh, when asked if the two jammed between scenes. “I did talk to him a bit about balancing acting and music. He said ‘How do you do it?’ And, I was like: ‘How do YOU do it?!”

In fact, the dual career path was always Porter’s plan. She grew up on her family’s bison and cattle ranch outside of Medicine Hat and showed an early affinity for piano and violin. She sheepishly acknowledges touring as part of a “weird little song and dance group” with her family, which includes older brother and former Canadian Idol winner Kalan Porter.

“Those videos,” she says with a laugh, “I hope never surface.”

But acting and singing always went hand-in-hand. She started appearing in local musical theatre at the age of six. By 10 she had an acting coach and signed with a Vancouver agent at 13.

Now based in Vancouver, Hell on Wheels gave her chance to spend time back at the family ranch, which her parents still operate.

She said being a part of Hell on Wheels also gave her another Alberta family.

“I was pretty nervous to even read for the part,” she says. “But once I booked it and I got on set and met everybody, it felt like I was coming into a family. They embraced me the first day on set as part of the family.”

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